Irish America

Irish America

November 1999 Issue

John Steinbeck: Voice of the Dispossessed

By Jim Dwyer

November 1999

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All the great novels and stories of John Steinbeck slice into the American experience, clear to the bone. They are set in California, or along Route 66, where the Joads trekked across the southwest from the Dust Bowls. And Steinbeck himself, born with the century, was raised in Salinas, California, when it was still a small town on the last frontier of America. Yet the voice … [Read more...] about John Steinbeck: Voice of the Dispossessed

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

By Tom Dunphy

November 1999

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The Music Makers It's only in the last number of years that I realize how deep down into the soil of Ireland my roots really go. I had such a tremendous amount to draw on, and didn't realize it."-Tommy Makem The image is indelible -- five Irishmen, clad in Aran sweaters, chests out, singing songs of Irish humor, history, and freedom. The Clancy Brothers, along with Tommy … [Read more...] about The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

Our Jack

By Pete Hamill, Contributor

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Pete Hamill writes on JFK Somewhere in the shadowy land between myth and history lies the domicile of John F. Kennedy. The first United States president of Irish-Catholic descent, Kennedy was a man of many faces: war hero, orator, lover, creator, and visionary. He had it all, and it was all taken away, but in the end he gained immortality. That day I was in Ireland, in the … [Read more...] about Our Jack